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A Weekend In Rome

SILVIA VENTURINI FENDI, granddaughter of the legendary Fendi label founders and now head of its accessories, is on a mission - to reinvigorate Rome's couture fashion soul.

"Going to a couturier is like going to a psychologist. You can tell them everything," she told us in Rome this past weekend, there to unveil the fruits of this season's Limited/Unlimited initiative - her curatorial project as part of AltaRoma, Rome's bi-annual Fashion Week offering underpinned by the art and practice of couture. "Rome has an incredible history in fashion and there are still incredible maisons and archives and people. We want to give an injection of energy."

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Forty-two designers - Corto Moltedo, Nasir Mazhar, Justin Smith among them - were invited to indulge their creativity, using exclusive and limited edition garments and reinterpreting them accordingly in what is being called "neocouture".

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Rome

ByVogue

"The idea was to create a movement. When I started Limited/Unlimited I did it with 12 designers, now there are 42, it's growing and growing. It's a way of presenting work in a different way - there is strong value in every item and one is enough. It's a more symbolic approach," explained Fendi.

Among the creations were dresses, shoes, jewellery and accessories lovingly infused with nuances and poignant details. For Fendi, it's a way of getting back to the root of being a designer.

"When you talk about couture as a designer you are free, giving up intimate thoughts. It's a way to go back to the pleasure for the designer," she continued, highlighting the increased presence of pressures such as marketing and the rise of fast fashion - the polar opposite to couture - for designers today.

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ByRobb Young

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Fendi recalled how she began to get clothes made for her at the age of two, a very special day. "I remember they had the most exquisite children's things and everything came in light colours but my mother kept asking for navy and black and brown. When we went on holiday someone said 'Are they orphans?' And my mother said: 'No they are in fashion'."

Back to the revitalisation of couture, or rather neocouture, she explained that it is the idea of taking the knowledge, the savoire-faire, and taking it to the future through new designers that is the key.

"Everyone starts as a couturier, then the industry arrives. Rome wants to support the first steps," she said.

Held over five days, AltaRoma this season featured a packed schedule of couture designers showing their collections as well as the Who Is On Next? competition, a search for new fashion talent in much the same way London has Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund. Angelos Bratis was the designer who found himself walking away with this season's ready-to-wear crown.

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"Rome can make dreams come true," concluded Fendi. It certainly did for Bratis, who understandably had a smile on his face the whole weekend long. And as the initiative develops more - and with Fendi at its head - Rome looks set to continue fulfilling dreams.